A user may use one or more hearing assistance devices to enhance the user's ability to hear sound. Example types of hearing assistance devices include hearing aids, cochlear implants, and so on. A typical hearing assistance device includes one or more microphones. The hearing assistance device may generate a signal representing a mix of sounds received by the one or more microphones and output an amplified version of the received sound based on the signal.
Problems of speech intelligibility are common among users of hearing assistance devices. In other words, it may be difficult for a user of a hearing assistance device to differentiate speech sounds from background sounds or other types of sounds. Binaural beamforming is a technique designed to increase the relative volume of voice sounds output by hearing assistance devices relative to other sounds. That is, binaural beamforming may increase the signal-to-noise ratio. A user of hearing assistance devices that use binaural beamforming wear two hearing assistance devices, one for each ear. Hence, the hearing assistance devices are said to be binaural. The binaural hearing assistance devices may communicate with each other. In general, binaural beamforming works by selectively canceling sounds that do not originate from a focal direction, such as directly in front of the user, while potentially reinforcing sounds that originate from the focal direction. Thus, binaural beamforming may suppress noise, where noise is considered to be sound not originating from the focal direction.